


pretty like birds

by daturana



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Advice, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexuality, Drabble, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, One Shot, Other, Relationship Advice, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 02:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6176242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daturana/pseuds/daturana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>riley asks her mother why male birds are prettier than females but that's not the case with humans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	pretty like birds

"Mom, got a sec?" A girl no older than ten years old piped up, speaking over the blaring commercials in the background. She plopped down on the couch, scooted closer to her mother's body and laid her head gently onto the middle-aged woman's lap. She was in the midst of working out a problem and Topanga Matthews was the only person that knew how to solve it. Moms always knew how to work things out or, at the very least, they had this way of letting you spill out your thoughts and emotions in a stream of consciousness just so you can brainstorm ideas along the way. "I got a question." 

"Go ahead, Riley." With no way of knowing what was being thrown at her and, knowing her own daughter that could encompass anything, she beckoned for her to carry on. She appeared dismissive, watching television, but she was no doubt prepared. Well, at the very least, conceptually. 

"I'm just trying to understand and it's really frustrating." Riley scrunched up her nose and sighed. "Well, here goes: I just don't get why girls are so much nicer to look at. Like, how am I supposed to find a guy to marry when not all of them are nice like that one really cute boy, you know him, I've talked about him! And girls, girls are everywhere and they're just better looking than them all and- and they don't even have to try! Not to be mean and all, but have you ever seen a boy look all nice and stuff when they dress up? I mean, they look fine and stuff by themselves but when you put them together they all look... the same." 

"Yeah, I think I follow." Topanga thought back to her own school days as she stroked through her daughter's long dark hair. Riley continued to ramble incessantly and it didn't even matter that her mother had zoned out for a mere second. 

"It's like those teen movies you've showed me. The nerd – that so-called ugly girl has got this frizzy hair, big bulky glasses, and she's crushing on this average guy that I could probably pick out in my class!" Riley shot up to glance at her mother, completely exasperated. 

"Well-" 

"And I'm not even halfway done, Mom!" Her voice kept rising and her mother knew it'd croak by half past nine. "It's the boys who need the makeover, am I wrong? I just don't see the big deal." 

"So, what's the problem?" 

"Well, Ma, I'm glad you asked, girls, they're prettier than boys. Why? Like, in nature, with birds and stuff, the dude birds are all colorful and neat-looking to distract predators from the the nests and the mama birds, but that doesn't happen with humans. I don't got an answer for that, but maybe I'll use it for my science project hypothesis... so, I gotta know, why aren't boys the pretty birds if I'm supposed to fall in love and marry them and all that?" 

"You don't have to marry them at all." 

"Okay, Mom... you didn't answer me, though." 

"You can look at girls. You can like them." 

"What?" 

Topanga breathed out a heavy sigh, shifting her legs as they were succumbing to a numb sleep beneath her child, "I don't know if you know, but sometimes we need the reminder and sometimes we don't ever get a reminder. You can look at girls like that. Like that cute boy." 

Riley didn't know how to respond, but she settled for embracing her in a long overdue hug all the while fumbling for the remote. Planting her face in the crook of her mother's neck, she leaned onto her shoulder, watching as a bad family sit-com unfolded. A pretty woman for a wife stood idly by as her lazy slob of a husband berated her. "I don't get it. Why do women always end up with those guys- they never end up with women like _that_? Makes no sense." 

"Honey, I ask myself the same damn thing." 

"I hope she divorces him so I can marry her."


End file.
